Armine Rhea Mendoza is one of the most prolific writers of contemporary Tagalog

Tagalog language

Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...

 romance novels in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. Using the pseudonym Camilla, which Mendoza adopted from a female warrior

Camilla (mythology)

In Roman mythology, Camilla of the Volsci was the daughter of King Metabus and Casmilla. Driven from his throne, Metabus was chased into the wilderness by armed Volsci, his infant daughter in his hands. The river Amasenus blocked his path, and, fearing for the child's welfare, Metabus bound her to...

 in the Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

(see the Aenid as well), Mendoza writes for Precious Heart Romances (PHR), the Tagalog pocketbooks

Tagalog pocketbooks

Tagalog romance novels, sometimes collectively referred to as Tagalog pocketbooks, Tagalog paperbacks, Tagalog romance paperbacks, Tagalog romance pocketbooks, Philippine romance novels, Filipino romance novels, Pinoy pocketbooks, Tagalog popular novels, or Tagalog popular romance literature are...

 brand published by Precious Pages Corporation since 1992. She was a magazine writer and editor before writing popular romance novel in a full-time capacity.

Education

Mendoza studied at the Ateneo de Manila University

Ateneo de Manila University

The Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...

 and the De La Salle University

De La Salle University

De La Salle University is a private Lasallian university in Malate, Manila, Philippines. It was founded in 1911 by De La Salle Brothers as the De La Salle College in Paco, Manila with Blimond Pierre serving as its first director...

.

Career

A productive romance-genre writer, Mendoza produces around thirty manuscripts annually. Her career in romance novel writing was influenced and jump-started by an aunt, Nanay Binya. Mendoza borrowed from her aunt's collection of Tagalog romance books that were published during the 1990s in order to study the style of popular romance writing. The characters in her romance books include Karen Kerengkeng, a female protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

.

See also

• Lualhati Bautista
  Lualhati Bautista
  Lualhati Torres Bautista is one of the foremost Filipino female novelists in the history of contemporary Philippine Literature. Her novels include Dekada '70, Bata, Bata, Pa'no Ka Ginawa?, and ‘GAPÔ....
  
  
• Edgardo Reyes
• Maria Teresa Cruz San Diego
  Maria Teresa Cruz San Diego
  Maria Teresa "Tessa" Cruz San Diego is a prolific and bestselling author of Tagalog popular romance novels in the Philippines. As a writer for the Tagalog pocketbooks industry, San Diego used the noms de plume such as Maia Jose and Tisha Nicole....
  
  
• Babes Cajayon
  Babes Cajayon
  Babes Cajayon is a renowned author of Tagalog popular romance novels in the Philippines. Cajayon used the pen name Martha Cecilia, a nom de plume she adopted from her daughter. Her trademark in pocketbook writing are novels with happy endings. She is the writer for the bestselling Kristine series,...